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#2 of 5 - Kristian v. Comcast Corp - limitation period
April 28, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

Should employment lawyers care what Kristian v. Comcast Corp (1st Cir 04/20/2006) says about contractual limitation periods? This is #2 in a series of 5 on the Kristian case.

Background: Kristian was an antitrust case brought by cable TV subscribers against their cable provider. The provider moved to compel arbitration as required in the subscriber-provider contract. The 1st Circuit held that arbitration was required.

Limitation period: The contract required that subscribers "contact" Comcast within one year of an even giving rise to a dispute. State and federal antitrust statutes have a four year statute of limitations.

Holding: The court held that any potential conflict between the contract and the statutes of limitations must be decided by the arbitrator.

Reasoning:

• First, unlike previous cases in which a similar issue was for an arbitrator to decide, this is a case where the contract's limitation period "conflicts" with statutory limitation periods.
• Second, the subscribers are claiming an "ongoing injury" that could operate to toll a statute of limitations under certain circumstances.
• Third, the question of tolling raises factual issues which are the province of an arbitrator.
• Fourth, a statute of limitations is raised as an affirmative defense, and does no0t raise an issue of "arbitrability."

Applied to employment cases: I see no reason for the court to have any different reasoning in an employment case.

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